Budget Monitor 

Use

You can use this monitor application as a budget planner or administrator, for example, to monitor and process budgets for the OTB and PPW applications in SAP BI, and if required, send them to SAP ECC (by releasing them), thereby making them available for the operational processes in SAP ECC.

You start the Budget Monitor on the SAP Easy Access screen by choosing Business Planning and Simulation ® Planning Content → Retail Analytics ® Merchandise Planning ® Budget Monitor.

Integration

You can use a Business Add-In (BAdI) to include additional InfoObjects as selection fields in the Budget Monitor.  This BAdI can be found in Customizing for SAP BI under SAP Netweaver ® SAP Business Information Warehouse ® Settings for BI Content ® Retail ® Budget Planning ® Enhancements with Business Add-Ins ® BAdI: Budget Monitor.

You can use the authorization object W_MAP_BUTY to check certain authorizations for each application and budget type in the Monitor and in certain Customizing activities.

Prerequisites

·        You use an SAP BI system, Release 7.02 (NW 2004s BI Content Add-On 2) or higher.

·        You have made the necessary cross-component settings for budget processes in Customizing in SAP BI and SAP ECC.

·        You can deactivate budgets for the OTB application. To do so, you have set one of the following options in Customizing for the Budget Type:

¡        Deactivation always possible

¡        Deactivation only possible if there are no documents for the budget in SAP ECC

·        If you want to use the delta method when transferring budgets to SAP ECC, you have defined this in Customizing for the Budget Type. The delta method means that only budgets whose planned values are different from the released values and whose status is therefore red are transferred to SAP ECC. You can also reduce the data volume to be transferred by entering a relative tolerance. If you do this, only budgets whose changed values fall outside of the tolerance threshold are transferred. Budgets for which the values released most recently differ from the current planned values but are still within the tolerance threshold are given the status yellow.

For example, the tolerance value 5% means that the system only transfers budgets whose value has changed by at least 5% since the time it was released.

Features

You can select budgets by application and budget type (mandatory criteria). You can also select budgets using the budget number or using InfoObjects in the budget level of the selected budget type.

You can limit the selection using additional filter criteria, for example, for the budget period, the difference between planned and released values, and for the budget status.

Each line of the search result displays detailed data for a budget, such as, the status, budget period, release value, planned value.

Colored icons and picture icons such as the following help you to read the information quickly:

·         with the quick info text Active Budget

·        with the quick info text Active and Released

·         with the quick info text Budget from Past Period

·         with the quick info text Difference Exists

When budgets have a red icon, it means that the release value is different from the planned value, and that the difference exceeds the tolerance value. (Yellow means that the difference is within the tolerance limit, and green means that there is no difference between the planned and released values.)

·        with the quick info text Budget Not Yet Released

 

Some of the functions are dependent on the time base of the budget, for example, they are only available for current and future budgets.

All functions are carried out for the selected budget rows and in order to complete the following functions fully, you must choose Save:

§         Activate Budgets

§         Deactivate Budgets

§         Dispatch for Release

§         Deallocate for Release

§         Delete Budgets

Functions for Budgets in Current and Future Periods

·         with the quick info text Activate Budgets

·         with the quick info text Deactivate Budgets

These two functions are only available for the OTB application and require you to execute the Release Budget function in order to actually transfer the relevant information to SAP ECC. In the OTB check (see process step 4), the system checks the deactivation condition that is set and reacts accordingly (see Prerequisites).

Since it is not possible to create purchase orders in SAP ECC for inactive budgets, the deactivation function enables the budget planner to take action and intervene in purchasing (for example, after unforeseen events).

·         with the quick info text Release Budgets

You can release budgets online. The system updates the budget in SAP ECC with the planned value from the InfoCube in SAP BI that is displayed in the Budget Monitor. The settings of all the selected budgets are checked to see whether the delta method is to be used, and – if required, and if not filtered out by the delta method – the budgets are sent to SAP ECC.

The budgets selected using the Dispatch for Release function are not checked to see whether the delta method is to be used. They are always transferred to SAP ECC.

·         with the quick info text Release Budgets in a Job

You can schedule the budget release in background processing.

·         with the quick info text Dispatch for Release

You can schedule budgets for release. This function is only relevant when using the delta method. It enables you to release budgets with green or yellow status in the Compare Value column that were filtered out by the check for the delta method. You must choose Save after executing this function.

·         with the quick info text Deallocate for Release

You can reverse the dispatch for release.

Function for Budgets for Completed Periods

·         with the quick info text Delete Budgets

You can delete budgets for periods that have expired and for which the corresponding budget in SAP ECC has already been deleted. The system checks that these conditions have been met. For more information about the dependencies when deleting budgets, see Reorganization of the Budget Processes in SAP BI and SAP ECC.

Function for Budgets for All Periods

·         with the quick info text Compare with SAP ECC

You can compare the current budget in SAP BI with the one in SAP ECC.

·         with the quick info text Display Current Log

You can display the current application log since the transaction was started, with regard to the budget release of selected budget numbers.

·         with the quick info text Display All Logs

You can display all application logs in the system with regard to the budget release of selected budgets.

Function Available per Budget: Display of OTB Allocation

·         with the quick info text Display OTB Allocation

This function is only available for OTB and for budget types with OTB allocation using a hotspot at budget level (per row). It opens a table of budget data for each order period with reference to the delivery period (this corresponds to the planning period of the chosen budget).

Special Characteristic of Budget Types in the PPW Application

If the budget type uses a key figure set with more than one key figure to plan for the price reductions of manual markdowns and/or promotions for two or three separate sales reduction budgets, the Budget Monitor uses a new row for each key figure.

Activities

       1.      You enter criteria to select relevant budgets.

       2.      You select certain budgets in the list of budgets foung matching your search criteria, for example, budgets that have a red status icon in the Compare Values column.

       3.      You execute the relevant action, for example, Release Budgets.